Concentric mounting of wheels on vehicle hubs have long been in concern in the marketplace. Much concern has been given to the concentric mounting of automotive wheels on the automotive hubs so as to minimize vibration of the wheels in operation and add to the comfort of the passenger.
Different brand of cars use different sized hub centers. To get around this problem, the aftermarket wheel makers may drill their wheels for the biggest possible hub center, so that their wheels can fit on the largest possible variety of cars. The problem is that if the center hole is too big, the wheels won't center on the hub properly, and the drive my get unwanted vibrations. To deal with this problem, the wheel manufacturer make plastic hub centering rings that adapt those center holes to different brands of cars, so that the wheels center on the hubs properly. It is much cheaper to produce and store one wheel and a dozen different plastic centering rings to adapt a wheel to different cars than it is to produce and store a dozen different wheels.
For both aluminum and steel wheel rims, the known hub centering rings have a retaining flange on the rear side in order to hold the centering rings in the right position relative to the center bore of the wheel rim. For aluminum rims, the rims have a thickness and are formed so that the vehicle hub is totally covered by the rim, and a center cap is usually provided, which center cap can be secured directly on the rim without engaging or touching the vehicle hub. However, steel rims are thinner than aluminum rims and do not cover the whole vehicle hub, and when a steel rim is mounted to the vehicle hub, a part of the hub protrudes though the center hole of the rim, and there is no room for securing a small center cap directly to the steel rim. Wheel covers covering the whole rim are available for steel rims, which wheel covers are secured along the periphery of the rim, but there is need for a steel rim center cap of reduced size, which can cover the protruding vehicle hub without covering the whole rim.
The combination of a center cap and a hub centering ring according to the present invention provides a cost effective solution to this problem.